For local health, ban coughing not smoking

Tuesday

Mar 11, 2003 at 1:43 PM

In the interest of public health, I would suggest it would be a great deal more effective to ban coughing -- nay, even breathing -- in public places than to further curtail the rights of smokers to smoke in those few places left to them.

While I support regulation of smoking, a ban on smoking in public places such as that sought by a "health initiatives representative" with the Houma Cancer Society is an inappropriate control issue that does not belong in the realm of legislation.

What is legal should not be banned. Should a restaurateur not have the right to determine whether his premises should or should not be smoke free?

I strongly support the rights of those who do not wish to frequent an establishment that permits smoking to avoid those establishments.